Looking to buy new lights

[commwagg24]

So what website is your go to for new lights?  I am biting the bullet and switching over LED this year and I need to get a bunch of lights in bulk.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

Bill 

[Mr. P]

Highly reccomend Holiday Light Express.

https://www.holiday-light-express.com/

[GriswoldStyle]

It depends on the type of light you're looking for, commercial or affordable? I honestly just buy the affordable Walmart LED lights. It took me 3 years to complete the upgrade switching to led but I buy them in bulk orders of a hundred 100 bulb sets at a time through Walmart around mid September. Normally $5.97 for 100 led mini lights of different colors and if you buy the 52' reels of lights they are around $19 a reel. That's what I use for my diamond cut C9 size LEDs for the roof and walls are the c9 sized ones. The mini lights are just as good and you can connect up to 30 sets in a row on those whereas with the old incandescent you couldn't do more than four or five in a row without blowing fuses. A lot of the people who have been doing it for years prefer higher-end light bulbs but I've been lighting up displays with the cheap ones for many years I never really had major issues.

But then again it all boils down to your budget, personal preference and what type of Lights you're looking for. Haven't had too many issues with the ones from Walmart other than squirrels chewing on some of the bulbs here in there. But it's like anywhere every now and then you get a bad set but after doing it for so many years you can pretty much pinpoint what's wrong with them and how to fix them. Out of the 30,000 + led lights I have bought from them, I've only had four sets over the last 3 years that went defective to the point that I could not replace a bulb and fix it. My kids like to troubleshoot the lights and figure out which bulb needs to be replaced so they're huge help when a set has an issue. LOL

Now on their cool white LED lights you always have to be careful on buying the reels of them because most times they're not the same color. But the mini lights are always spot-on.

Edited June 7, 2018 by GriswoldStyle

[Mr. P]

Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot and other retailers are fine if you just want basci led lights. The issue with those is that they are primarily half wave lights, if you look at them you can see them flickering and when you dim them they usually shut completely off aound 30% - 40%. If you want good quality lights that will dim properly and not flicker then you need to spend a little more and get full wave lights.

Also, the more expensive lights are sealed, the cheaper ones are not.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Mr. P

[ericm]

1 hour ago, Mr. P said:

Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot and other retailers are fine if you just want basci led lights. The issue with those is that they are primarily half wave lights, if you look at them you can see them flickering and when you dim them they usually shut completely off aound 30% - 40%. If you want good quality lights that will dim properly and not flicker then you need to spend a little more and get full wave lights.

Also, the more expensive lights are sealed, the cheaper ones are not.

Almost all my 80,000 lights are Walmart lights, I got day after Christmas on clearance and clean them out.  No issues with dimming.  The only issue I have with Walmart lights is there is no consistency in the warm whites. All real closer but box to box is just a bit off.

[Mr. P]

4 minutes ago, ericm said:

Almost all my 80,000 lights are Walmart lights, I got day after Christmas on clearance and clean them out.  No issues with dimming.  The only issue I have with Walmart lights is there is no consistency in the warm whites. All real closer but box to box is just a bit off.

I also have a ton of the major retailer lights and a ton of the full wave lights from places like HLE. If I do a slow fade (5 or 10 sec) then the cheaper lights shut off way before the more expensive lights and vice versa on a slow ramp up. On fast sequences it doesn't matter because it all happens so fast.

I can also see the difference when watching my show as I can see the flickering in the cheaper lights so I can tell which light sets are what.